Well I did reluctantly sell a Laney LC-15R recently for $250 (imo a steal), and it was plenty loud. In layman's terms, 'tube watts' are louder than 'solidstate watts'. I've kept with a full band with the gain at 9o'clock and volume at about 1o'clock before, so I doubt you'll need that high a voltage to be heard.
Like amp lore goes, people always ask you to 'crank it for good tone', and there is truth in that. I use a 60 watt tube Fender now, and at home I'm afraid of a call from the police with the amp set at 2, completely own a full band with a hard-hitting drummer at 3. The reason I got such a large amp was for the headroom, so that it wouldn't distort that easily. And it looks quite impressive too, but thats besides the point.
The good bit about smaller amps is that you can actually crank them till they breakup. I used to set my small Laney at a nice bluesy breakup volume, which I don't really get from my Fender now. So weigh the pros and cons. A high gain tube amp doesn't sound as good at low volumes as at higher volumes. At low volumes, the distortion comes mainly from the preamp tubes overdriving, which might be buzzier, but when the volume is up, the poweramp tubes are cooking and thats where most of the famous rock tones are.
Just my input about the logic behind smaller amps.
Like amp lore goes, people always ask you to 'crank it for good tone', and there is truth in that. I use a 60 watt tube Fender now, and at home I'm afraid of a call from the police with the amp set at 2, completely own a full band with a hard-hitting drummer at 3. The reason I got such a large amp was for the headroom, so that it wouldn't distort that easily. And it looks quite impressive too, but thats besides the point.
The good bit about smaller amps is that you can actually crank them till they breakup. I used to set my small Laney at a nice bluesy breakup volume, which I don't really get from my Fender now. So weigh the pros and cons. A high gain tube amp doesn't sound as good at low volumes as at higher volumes. At low volumes, the distortion comes mainly from the preamp tubes overdriving, which might be buzzier, but when the volume is up, the poweramp tubes are cooking and thats where most of the famous rock tones are.
Just my input about the logic behind smaller amps.
